The Rhodes Not Taken
The Rhodes Not Taken is the fifth episode of Glee's first season. It premiered on the Fox network on September 30, 2009. It was written by series co-creator Ian Brennan and directed by John Scott. The episode features Glee Club director Will Schuester recruiting former star April Rhodes, hoping to improve the club's chances in the wake of Rachel's defection to the school musical. Finn flirts with Rachel in an attempt to convince her to return, and although Rachel is angry when she discovers Finn's girlfriend is pregnant, she ultimately rejoins the club. Special guest star Kristin Chenoweth played April, and performed on three of the episode's six musical tracks. Studio recordings of four of the songs performed in the episode were released as singles, available for digital download, and two appear on the album Glee: The Music, Volume 1. It was written by Ian Brennan and was directed by John Scott. Plot While at dinner with Terri, Will meets Chris, a 24-year old former student, of his whom is still competing in Vocal Adrenaline. Will tells Emma about Quinn's pregnancy. Without revealing her knowledge of Quinn's situation, Emma takes a special in interest in Finn's future and suggests he try for a music scholarship. Performing well in the sectional and regional competitions may help drum up college interest, she tells him, and she suggests trying to bring Rachel back to Glee. Finn finds Rachel working on publicity for the musical. He flirts openly with her and offers to help her run lines, using her feelings towards him as a way to try and convince her to come back so that he can get the music scholarship Emma suggested. Will has Emma look up the file of April Rhodes, a classmate of his who was the biggest star of the McKinley High Glee Club and Will's first crush. He sees on her transcripts that she came three credits shy of graduating. Will finds April online, and she has him meet her at a luxury home. After pretending the mansion in hers, April is outed by a real estate agent as a squatter. Outside, April tells Will she went to New York with her high school sweetheart and never ended up making it big. She agrees to come back to McKinley, take a few courses to graduate, and join Glee again. The Glee kids aren't convinced April can be as good as Rachel. To prove her skills, April performs ''Maybe This Time'', with Rachel joining in towards the end from the auditorium. April is so brilliant that Kurt cries. Still Will doesn't think the kids in Glee have accepted April socially. He suggests she try and win them over. This involves April introducing Kurt to booze, teaching Mercedes and Tina how to shoplift and flirting mercilessly (and showering) with the football guys. Sandy isn't happy with Rachel's work in Cabaret, primarily because he wants to install himself in the play. Finn works with Rachel on her lines. He suggests they go bowling together to relieve some stress. Rachel and Finn are shocked when Will comes in to teach April Don't Stop Believin', which should have been Rachel's song, as Finn says, "But Mr. Schue, that's Rachel's part." A drunken Kurt throws up on Emma in the hallway after mistaking her for Bambi. After several decontamination showers, Emma tells Will that April is a bad influence on the kids. After Sandy yells at Rachel once again she runs to the bathroom to cry. There she bumps into April and the two have an argument. April promises Rachel that she is never going to relinquish her renewed role as school star. Finn and Rachel are at the bowling alley, as are Will and April. Will expresses his concern that April is a poor influence, and she tells him she will go back on the wagon. He then confesses his dream was for them to perform together. They do a quick duet of Heart's Alone. Finn tells Rachel everybody misses her in Glee. But Rachel says, "I was never appreciated", and Finn retorts by saying, "I appreciate you." On Rachel's last bowl, she lands a strike and during a celebratory hug with Finn, they kiss. She tells Finn she'll return to Glee. Puck tells everyone in Glee that Quinn's strange behavior (puking, etc.) is the result of a "bun in the oven" and that Finn is the father (even though Puck's the real father). Just then Rachel walks in to rejoin Glee. Kurt tells her about Finn and Quinn's pregnancy, and Rachel is stunned. After bringing Emma an application for a music scholarship, Finn is confronted by Rachel in the hallway with a satisfying slap. She is upset he didn't tell her about Quinn and says now she will never return to Glee. When Finn tells her, "That kiss was real", Rachel says, "Well, whatever it was it's ruined any chance of me ever coming back to Glee", and storms off. Sue gives Rachel complete creative control over Cabaret. April shows up drunk for the Invitational performance. Emma thinks Will shouldn't let her go on, but he decides yanking her would only be punishing the other kids. Glee goes on, with April doing a rousing rendition of Carrie Underwood's Last Name. Rachel watches from the back, obviously upset. After the first number, Will tells April he can't let her go back on stage. April agrees, telling Will the kids are lucky they have him to prevent their lives from turning out the way hers did. Needing a new lead, Rachel steps in - sucking up her pride to be the "understudy" and helps Glee knock Somebody to Love''out of the park in the second act. Songs *'Don't Stop Believin'' ''by Journey, ''sung by Quinn and Finn with New Directions. *'Maybe This Time' ''from Cabaret, ''sung by April and Rachel. *'Cabaret' ''from Cabaret, ''sung by Rachel. *'Alone' ''by Heart, ''sung by Will and April. *'Last Name' ''by Carrie Underwood, ''sung by April and New Directions. *'Somebody To Love' ''by Queen, ''sung by New Directions. Background Songs *'Desafinado''' by Ronnie Pleydell (the scene of Will and Terri in the restaurant) *'Heart of Glass' by Blondie (Will meets April at her squatting grounds) *'You Make My Dreams' by Hall & Oates (The montage of April being a bad influence on the glee club) *'I Want a New Drug' by Huey Lewis and the News (the bowling scene) *'Heartbreak Beat' by the Psychedelic Furs (Rachel and Finn share a romantic moment in the bowling alley) Guest Stars Special Guest Star *Kristin Chenoweth as April Rhodes Guest Cast *Stephen Tobolowsky as Sandy Ryerson *Iqbal Theba as Principal Figgins *Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez *Heather Morris as Brittany Pierce *Harry Shum Jr. as Mike Chang *Dijon Talton as Matt Rutherford *Jayson Blair as Chris *Susan Leslie as Sandra (Real Estate Agent) Co-Stars *Josh Sussman as Jacob Ben Israel *Larry Udy as Barry, the Bartender Reception The episode was watched by 7.32 million U.S. viewers. It received mostly positive reviews from critics, with Chenoweth's appearance and the performance of Queen cover Somebody to Love in particular receiving praise. Raymund Flandez for The Wall Street Journal, Mike Hale of the New York Times and Denise Martin for the Los Angeles Times all deemed "Somebody to Love" the show's best musical number since the staging of Journey's Don't Stop Believin' in Pilot. Trivia *When Kurt says they should talk about the elephant in the room, Santana replies with, "What? Your sexuality?" And smiles. This is ironic that she questions his sexuality when later on in season 2 she will begin to question her own. *Kristin Chenoweth stated that she was actually nervous to sing a song with Matthew Morrison because she wasn't much of a pop singer. *This is the first time they had a recap before the episode. *During the bowling scene, Rachel compliments on the pepperoni pizza she was eating despite being a Vegan, shown in Funk . *When April gives Kurt alcohol, in the background is playing the song You Make My Dreams, which is sung by New Directions in Mash Off (Season Three) *The title of this episode is a play on "The Road Not Taken", a famous poem by Robert Frost. Like Frost's poem, the episode deals with the choices people make and the consequences of those choices. The title has further significance in that April is "the road not taken" for Will. (i.e. the girl he might have ended up with if he hadn't married with Terri.) *The first episode to feature a characters name in the title *The First Time we see Quinn, Brittany and Santana outside of their Cheerios uniform. *Even though Will says that "Lord Google demands my attention", the search engine he is actually using is called "Foozle". *This episode begins the show's continuous confusion between musicals and their film adaptations. "Maybe This Time" originated from the film adaptation of Cabaret and not the musical, and the lines "I'm sleeping with him" and "So am I" were never in the musical. Quotes ''' Navigational Category:Episodes Category:Season One Episodes